United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

A fire has spread among structures at Shuri Castle on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, nearly destroying the UNESCO World Heritage site. Firefighters were still battling the blaze a few hours after the fire started early Thursday, and nearby residents were evacuated to safer areas, Okinawa police spokesman Ryo Kochi said. The fire in Naha, the prefectural capital of Okinawa,...

With oak and chestnut forests, waterfalls and rugged coastline, Samothraki has a wild beauty and a remoteness that sets it apart from other Greek islands. There are no package holidays here or even a reliable ferry service to the mainland. Island authorities hope to achieve UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status. Yet still, the natural environment is under threat from an insatiable...

A herd of wild elephants was swept away by raging waters in a national park in Thailand, drowning six, while rangers helped steer two of the animals out of a deep ravine. Staff at Khao Yai National Park discovered the two struggling elephants and the carcasses after dawn Saturday near the Haew Narok waterfall, also known as the Ravine of...

A unique solid gold toilet that was part of an art exhibit was stolen early Saturday from the magnificent home in England where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born. The toilet, valued at roughly 1 million pounds ($1.25 million), was the work of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. It had been installed only two days earlier at Blenheim Palace, west...

The government agency that manages Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has downgraded its outlook for the corals’ condition from “poor” to “very poor” due to warming oceans. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s condition report, which is updated every five years, is the latest bad news for the 345,400 square kilometer (133,360 square miles) colorful coral network off the northeast...

Swiss residents and tourists alike are partying like they haven’t since 1999. The town of Vevey has kicked off the 12th “Fete des Vignerons,” or Winemakers Festival, the latest installment in a centuries-old tradition of celebrating vineyard workers — which nowadays takes place only once a generation. Festival organizers have pulled out the stops for the celebration in Vevey, a...

Japan’s trade minister says the kimono belongs to Japan — not to Kim Kardashian West’s shapewear brand. West announced the line, Kimono Solutionwear, last week. But some Japanese critics on social media said the name, which the reality TV star, makeup mogul and budding lawyer trademarked, is an inappropriate take on centuries-old kimono clothing.

Too much Dolce Vita can get you banned from Rome, where the mayor on Friday ushered in a permanent get-tough approach on boorish behavior by tourists and those Romans who exploit them. Exasperated by tourists who frolic in Rome’s public fountains, vandalize its monuments and treat its landmarks as their own personal living rooms, the city famous for its artistic...

Top scientists will tell the world Monday how bad off Mother Nature is. The United Nations plans to issue its first comprehensive scientific report on biodiversity, looking hard at the threat of extinction for Earth’s plant and animal species and what it means for humanity. Report Chairman Robert Watson said last month that there are five major threats to biodiversity:...

An environmental disaster is unfolding in the Pacific after a large ship ran aground and began leaking oil next to a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Solomon Islands, Australian officials said Friday. Footage taken this week shows little progress has been made in stopping the Solomon Trader ship from leaking oil since it ran aground Feb. 5, according to...

A living member of species of tortoise not seen in more than 110 years and feared to be extinct has been found in a remote part of the Galapagos island of Fernandina. An adult female Chelonoidis phantasticus, also known as the Fernandina Giant Tortoise, was spotted Sunday by a joint expedition of the Galapagos National Park and the U.S.-based Galapagos...

Montserrat Caballe, a Spanish opera singer renowned for her bel canto technique and her interpretations of the roles of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, has died. She was 85. Caballe died early Saturday at Hospital San Pau in Barcelona, hospital spokesman Abraham del Moral told The Associated Press. Caballe’s family requested the cause of death not be released, saying that she...

Researchers held out hope that a famed skull and other valuable objects might somehow be recovered from the ashes of a massive blaze that tore through Brazil’s National Museum after firefighters found bone fragments from the collection. Officials have said as much as 90 percent of Latin America’s largest collection of treasures might have been lost in a fire that...

Archaeologists in Egypt stumbled upon a new discovery dating back to more than 2,500 years ago near Egypt’s famed pyramids at an ancient necropolis south of Cairo. The discovery which includes a mummification workshop and a shaft, used as a communal burial place, is located at the vast Saqqara necropolis part of the Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Memphis,...

A Spanish galleon laden with gold that sank to the bottom of the Caribbean off the coast of Colombia more than 300 years ago was found three years ago with the help of an underwater autonomous vehicle operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the agency disclosed for the first time.

The city of Naples, often in headlines for its garbage woes and mafia violence, is celebrating international recognition of its tastier side. UNESCO on Thursday added the art of the Neapolitan pizza maker, or “pizzaiuolo,” to its list of “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.” Neapolitan pizza making was one of 33 traditional practices from around the world that were added...

The chief U.S. envoy at UNESCO says anti-Israel bias and opaque bureaucracy are hobbling the U.N. cultural agency and is urging deep reforms. Chris Hegadorn made the appeal Saturday at the agency’s Paris headquarters in one of the last major American speeches to UNESCO before the U.S. withdraws next year. Hegadorn said the decision to leave “wasn’t taken lightly” but...

The United States is pulling out of UNESCO because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and a need for “fundamental reform” of the U.N. cultural agency. While the Trump administration had been preparing for a likely withdrawal for months, the announcement by the State Department on Thursday rocked UNESCO’s Paris headquarters, where a heated election to choose a...

Diamond prospectors in Namibia nearly a decade ago stumbled upon remnants of a shipwrecked Portuguese vessel whose trading journey to India was cut violently short by a storm in 1533. Today the artifacts from the doomed ship, described by archaeologists as one of that era’s most important finds, remain a hidden treasure. Relics stored in a dimly lit warehouse at...